At least when I were lad (in UK), we only got brick weed (which I remember was a good bit less strong than hash), but it was almost exclusively Moroccan hash we got, and even though that is a "concentrate", THC levels have traditionally[0] been lower, and CBD levels significantly higher, than much of today's modern cannabis flower.
[0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303871898_The_main_...
On the hand every single person I know who abused weed (including me) by wake and baking themselves for years have stopped smoking basically because every time they smoked their heartbeat would go to 9000 and they just couldn’t feel good on it anymore (by good I mean just “not feeling like I am having a heart attack in purely physical way”)
Just to be clear it has nothing to do with paranoia, just physical effects - I don’t feel afraid, it’s just that there are no good effects anymore.
Weed never destroyed my life. I was a hugely high-functioning addict to be honest. But there’s no way I can smoke and not get my heartbeat to the moon.
So please, just stop this misinformation. You just never smoked enough of weed to get there.
There was always strong weed, and hashish; it just means you either consume less or fall asleep.
Hormones are possible, I guess.